Mandrill were a multiracial, multicultural band from Brooklyn who blended Latin, Caribbean, jazz, rock, and funk into a sound that was genuinely unique in the early 1970s. "Fencewalk" (1972) is built on interlocking Latin percussion, a propulsive bass line, and a drum groove that draws from multiple rhythmic traditions simultaneously. The track grooves in a way that's distinctly different from the straightforward funk of their contemporaries.

Ice Cube, Cypress Hill, Kanye West, and Beck have all sampled "Fencewalk," drawn to its rhythmic complexity and multicultural energy. The break's Latin-funk flavor gave productions a different character — more rhythmically intricate, more globally aware — and it anticipated the multicultural sampling approach that hip-hop would eventually embrace fully.